For Elizabeth
by Irkala
Summary: An exchange is what I was going for here, an exchange that I feel we are long over-due. Or at least a glance at such an exchange. One shot of course. I somewhat want to expand to the siblings as well-or at least touch on them Perhaps in the Future


"What is the meaning of our Selves?" the girl said.

Her blond hair gently traced her face and its soft features; her pale complexion, her softly glowing golden eyes, her somehow twisted smile. While she appeared human, this was nothing but a façade, a barricade for something far beyond humanity, beyond nature, beyond the term in and of itself. What she was only paled to what her master was.

Her master, a rather short and 'gangly' man, with wrinkles and age dashed across his face like so many eons across time itself. He wore a very nice suit, with his thinned and disappearing grey hair slicked back—almost along the grooves of his bizarre smile that almost compared to the girl's. He wasn't the most aesthetically appealing, with his long hooked nose and eerie, bulbous eyes that literally cut straight through you, but he had an aura of supreme wisdom and experience that was unlike anything the girl had ever felt. In truth he was timeless, ageless, he seemed to have always been around. What little she knew about him almost matched what little she knew and understood about herself; this greatly bothered her. He told her that he did in fact have a superior—but he never really talked about them, whoever they were.

He smiled and stared at the table before him.

Here, in this space, this room, there was infinity. She couldn't find the words to explain it but time felt-it felt endless, it felt undying here. The room was a very nice, blue, dark room—The Velvet Room as she had come to know it as; infinitely ascending, infinitely climbing, infinitely going. There were sheets covering old furniture and miscellaneous things that no longer needed use, as well as some dim candles here and there. Despite how empty the room _was,_it never felt empty, it always felt complete. . .the girl struggled to come up with a term to fit what she was thinking of. It danced around the tip of her tongue, beckoning her with ideas she couldn't quite grasp.

"You needn't ask such a question, nor need you worry that pretty face of yours," her Master replied, still staring off into the darkness beyond the faint candles.

They had sat in silence for what felt like-ages? Or perhaps eons? Or maybe minutes?

Her concept of time had grown more and more distorted as the—well she couldn't really figure how much time had passed since she "came to be," but it seemed to have been a while. According to the observational data of the human conscious world, she appeared to be about 18 or 19, but that didn't quite sync with her. After all she wasn't like _them__,_she simply wasn't, even if sometimes she wanted to be. She felt different, but she was content in her difference—sometimes, not understanding it was painful however.

"But I. . ." she stopped herself, she didn't really know what to say to him.

She had seen this moment before, she had felt it as well. It was the same stinging sensation of confusion and perplexity that had haunted her since her birth—or moreso her creation. The same numb feeling of absolute uncertainty. She detested the melancholy it brought, but somehow loved it at the same time.

He closed his piercing eyes and softly sighed to himself.

"A long time ago, I thought about the same things. I thought about the Infinite, the supreme, the good and evil, as well as the purpose. The truth is young Elizabeth, there is no answer for us—the universe was not kind enough to give us that solace. We are destined to wallow in confusion until the day our consciousness falls into the abyssal depths of emptiness, the emptiness beyond the edges of nothing," His eyes had opened again, this time a rather focused and somewhat saddened look rested on his face as he stared down at the table before him.

He didn't enjoy telling her such a grim explanation, but he did feel she somewhat needed it. After all, her wandering mind had gotten her in trouble more than a few times.

She felt a pain in her chest at that. She would never find a completion it seemed, a _solace._Isn't that what we all want, solace?

Purpose? Completion?

What her Master was saying was something of _there is no hope_. She didn't want to believe that. She had always been curious about the humans and the outside world beyond; how could there be nothing for them? Were they so insignificant? She felt a dull pain in her throat, her lower lip began to lightly tremble. She felt all sorts of things, remorse, sadness, hopelessness, confusion—she felt a burning sensation in her eyes. This was something she hadn't felt or done in a long time-it felt so alien. A small tear rolled down her cheek onto her large book she held so dearly close to her. When she thought about all of it, she couldn't seem to calm down.

In the silence there was only her softly crying.

She was trying her best, with every fiber of willpower to not make any noise or to bother her master, yet she couldn't seem to stop. She simply closed her eyes and tried to calm down.

Her master stayed silent.

He knew she was in pain. He was too, his other _creations_ were as well. They all mourned the loss of their content, their solace—no they never really had any to begin with at all now did they? This is the misery of existence. Yet, it is that exact experience, that reminded him so long ago, why he was happy with being who and what he was. He may not have had a true purpose, but the simulated and ideal purpose given to him by his own Master was plenty enough. In the end, he realized that despite not knowing where he was headed, or what was to happen to his being, he felt content at simply doing what he was supposed to and watching it all go by along the sides. It was a peace, a sort of soft content that drove him to continue every eon, every year, every millennia, every second; time meant very little to him, he was outside of it after all.

When he created beings to live with him here in this "Velvet Room," this purgatory of sorts, he knew from the very start that they were doomed to go through what he did. But somehow, he knew that they would all overcome the struggle of finding themselves in nothing, just as their master did so long ago.

He knew that Elizabeth here had been struggling with this for a very long time. She had held her tongue for so long; it was only a matter of time before she broke. He didn't blame her, it was only natural. It was important she understood the hard facts before coming to her own understanding—or attempting to—of the _Grand Scheme_. He faintly smiled again, and stared up at the softly dancing lights on the ceiling from the window behind him.

They had been there for thousands of years, millennia. He had been there for even longer than that, but different forms and facades of such a place—the Velvet Room. Time was different here as well, sometimes, when he willed it, time would pass by faster or slower outside of here in the human conscious world. He felt that this was a good time to let that end for a bit and let Elizabeth and the others enjoy a brief respite before they change worlds, change universes, change times. They never knew, that was what deeply saddened him. What truly hurt him, what truly pained him inside of his old heart, was that his creations would never know a home beyond this small void, that they would always move along the gates and worlds in a desperate attempt to find something that they won't be able to unless they move at their own pace.

Elizabeth's older sister was just a quiet husk it seemed, always lost in thought, entranced in mental paradoxes and confusion that simply drove her to run off to the human world-in the end she always returned though. She was a strong woman and a reliable person, but despite her attempts to make herself seem unbreakable, she was just as shaky as her younger sister.

The youngest of the three, a stern young man, was not much different. Yet, in his silence, there is a desperate desire to prove himself and his being to not just them, but the universe itself. The eldest wants to understand herself to provide for her younger siblings, whereas the youngest wants to protect them and provide for them, and prove that he can.

Elizabeth is somewhere in between it seems.

All three of them are lost in their own minds; here in this purgatory they are completely lost in a labyrinth of psychological traps and existential misery. There is nothing he could do though, except sit, watch and hope they don't give up.

He had a schedule, he had a plan to follow, to help humanity in every phase of existence come to a better understanding of themselves—but most of all to observe and ponder their being as well as his own. He would either see their destruction, or their salvation. To be honest, he was scared of what was to come, but somehow he knew that out there, there was hope for them. If he was modeled after humans according to his master, than why not help them survive oblivion?

In the end, all he had was the strange time here in The Velvet Room, the company of his creations, and the hope—perhaps given to him directly from his master, that there was a chance for salvation out there for humans. As the owner of this surreal and ethereal place, he would only come into contact with those who had the most potential and the highest capability of changing the very flow of the destinies. As he moved throughout universes, times, places, he saw more and more people who very well could aid in the survival of humans in the universe.

What most of them don't realize is, that they come here, they are one in many from different times and realities and timelines simultaneously coming for aid and guidance. It is all part of the plan, all a part of the scheme his master had set up so long ago. He liked that, he was trying to help many. Hopefully, with the culmination of all of his and his creation's efforts, it would all turn out just fine.

He began to smile to himself again and slightly turned to Elizabeth, who still was undergoing a deep melancholy. She quickly wiped her eyes and put on her best fake smile.

He looked back down at the table before him, "We're about to make another stop. I have a very good feeling about this one Elizabeth."

She gave a small smile.

As the light behind them slowed down, they both felt the room settle into the new reality. They both anxiously and eagerly awaited who would be the next one to step through the door onto this plane. Hopefully, it would be the one to fix this mess. The old man smiled to himself once more, this could be the one.

If there was one thing that Elizabeth really wished she could share with _them_out there, it was dreams. She wanted to dream, she wanted to experience numb infinity—she wanted to escape.

Perhaps _someday_ she thought to herself.

When the soft music stopped and they went silent they could both here a noise outside of The Velvet Room. Beyond it though, in the Naught as her master called it, Elizabeth could hear a faint static.

It was a quiet, a wall of noise that taunted her from beyond.

It sounded so soft, so entrancing. Sometimes, it sounded close, other times it didn't, but here in this new stop it sounded closer than ever. Perhaps it was hope, perhaps it was reason, perhaps it was solace.

Elizabeth smiled to herself just as her Master did. Peace sounded lovely.

And out there among the static like noise and infinity, their absolute solace.


End file.
